As I prepared to write about this historic "pocket-sized" neighborhood, I looked up Maiden Lane on Google Maps and found something else entirely. What had been a quiet neighborhood comprising less than three acres that had earned status on the National Register of Historic Places, was no more.
Turn away from the NC State belltower on to Maiden Lane today, and you will find the quaintness and quiet is gone. It is replaced with the typical boxy, gray apartment buildings and surrounding parking lots that pass for progress in Raleigh today.
What a shame. What was recorded as a historic treasure in 2006 was mostly destroyed by 2024.
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| View on Google Map |
One cool feature of the street view on Google is that you can see older versions of the scene in front of you. Compare the identical spot on Maiden Lane. The top photo was captured by Google in 2007 and the bottom photo in 2022.
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| 2007 - click to view full size |
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| 2022 - click to view full size |
The homes that were razed were mostly colonial and Queen Anne style built in the 1890s to 1920s as housing for the teachers and professors at North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College (now NC State University). The house at 2 Maiden Lane, the yellow two-story on the right in the top photo, was the home of Isabella Morrison Hill, widow of Daniel H. Hill. D. H. Hill was a professor, and school president of NCA&M from 1908-1916.
In the spirit of not forgetting what was, you can peruse the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the Maiden Lane neighborhood. You will find the form, photos, descriptions of all thirteen homes and the architectural and historic report at this link.
Here are six notable points about Maiden Lane as a historic part of Raleigh:
- The Maiden Lane Historic District was formerly located west of downtown Raleigh, just north of North Carolina State University's bell tower, and occupied about 2.75 acres on the only block of Maiden Lane.
- The district was platted in 1892 by Wake County land surveyor Fendol Bevers, who designed it as a one-block residential street extending north from Hillsborough Street (then the road to Hillsboro).
- Maiden Lane's development was directly influenced by two major nearby establishments: R. Stanhope Pullen's 1887 land donation that created both NC State College (now University) and Pullen Park.
- The extension of Raleigh's electric street railway to Pullen Park in 1893-1894 significantly increased the practicality of living on Maiden Lane by reducing travel time to downtown.
- By 1910, development along Maiden Lane was already well underway, preceding other suburban streetcar developments like Cameron Park and Boylan Heights.
- The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 3, 2006, recognized for its historic significance to Raleigh's early suburban development.
It is good to remember Raleigh as it used to be and I am glad that we can capture glimpses of Maiden Lane from the past now that it is all concrete and asphalt.
Do you remember any other neighborhoods that have disappeared in the name of progress since the early 2000's? Did they have a historical designation?
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